No doubt! I don't even want to THINK about the low temperatures here in Sparks. So I huddle under my electric blanket with the cat and hope for spring.

Lisa

Hey Lisa

Is there anything I should do for my roses? I have some in containers and a couple in a raised bed. Besides mulching them-I am leaving them alone until January. Is this it? I know you have much colder weather then I do. I finally broke down and bought a oil electric heater for the sunroom yesterday. It still got down to 40 inside though...we will move the heater over to be under the windows like it was suggested in the instruction book.

Beca

Hi Beca,

It really has been cold this last week. A few days ago we actually had snow here at the base of Sunrise mountain. The kids got up at 5:30 in the morning when it was still dark out and played and took pictures. Christmas break I would have needed a bomb to get them out of bed that early but a couple inches of snow and they were flying out of those beds.

Now about our fireplace. Our heater works fine now but the fireplace is just this big metal box we get to look at in the corner of the living room. The guys who installed it said they needed a piece of pipe they didn't have with them and they will bring it back when we have installed the wall framing around the fireplace and the chimney around the pipe sticking out the roof. That means my DH and I have to agree on what we're going to do with the wall unit we want to build the fireplace in. Could be summer before that happens:)

Personally I would be very happy with a sunroom that only gets down to forty in the winter Beca. If I had a plant that gets damaged at that temperature I would say good riddance and get something else. My husbands stepmom lives in fountain valley in Orange County, CA and she has lots of impatiens. They do well in that coastal climate but IMHO they are not good plants for here. Look into the aloes beca, some of them are winter bloomers, they look great year round and so long as it doesn't actually get below freezing they'll be happy. Oh and they don't take much watering either. I have some but I can't have most because of our cold microclimate.

If I can get through this crazy business called Christmas I will try to post some pics next week.

Merry Christmas to all especially Beca, Bill, and Lisa who try so hard to keep this site kicking.

Beca, I ignore my roses, even the hybrid teas and the minis in pots, until spring, then cut off all the dead stuff, wait until the danger of frost is mostly past and then do the regular pruning.

Pretty much if temps don't go below zero, the roses will be fine, especially if you mulched the lower part of the canes. I've only had one loss in many years, and that was in a group of fall-planted roses. DO NOT plant roses in Fall in this area. The other two roses planted at the same time survived, but took an extra year to perk up and take off.

Lisa

Hi Lisa & Maria,

Lisa, after reading your note saying to never plant roses in the fall here-"opps"... I already planted two of mine in the new raised bed a couple months ago. I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I am getting to the point of repeating to some plants: "if you die, I will just replace you with one that'll grow here better." Thanks for your information on the roses. My daughter was recently visitng us and asked why we had roses growing "here" complete with that look on her face too ;(...I said they grow very well out here.

Maria, I will look into the aloes. You are right about growing plants for this area only. I knew I was taking a chance with the impatients....maybe just maybe they would be OK in the sunroom! I have to just let the plants go who can't make it here. It's hard-I do love the impatients soo. Oh well...life goes on. You guys sound like my husband and I. This place is still new and we have lots of ideas to do this & that. Dan is planning on building a built in wall unit next to our fireplace. It'll look so nice but I am waiting for him to do it too ;) Haha...Good luck on figuring out what you want in your wall unit/fireplace.
That is so funny about your kids and this snow we recently got. We only had snow flurries here...nothing stayed on the ground :(

B~